1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to railings in general and in particular to a method and apparatus for supporting railing forming panels above a horizontal surface.
2. Description of Related Art
Railings are commonly known to be located around a perimeter of a deck, balcony or along stairs. Such railings serve a safety function by preventing persons on the deck from inadvertently falling off. A railing has conventionally been formed of a plurality of upright posts spaced apart along the perimeter of the surface to be enclosed. The posts typically have a panel portion therebetween of spindles, mesh or other planar members with top and bottom rails. Railings have traditionally been a trade-off between offering greater security and safety with thicker and stronger materials or being less obstructive to persons trying to look through the railing by utilizing thinner materials.
One solution to reduce the visual obstruction caused by railings has been to utilized glass panels for the main planar portion of the railing. Such solutions may utilize metal or wood posts with corresponding metal or wood top and bottom rails. The use of simple glass panels in place of spindles within a conventional post and railing system, while improving the visibility therethrough, does still obstruct the visibility of occupants. Examples of such use of glass panels within conventional railing frames are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,017 to Maxcy et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,165 to Murdoch and U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,954 to Murdaca. Such attempts have not removed the posts or top and bottom rails entirely which will still impede visibility. Disadvantageously, many such systems also employ rails that have a slot sized to closely receive a specified thickness of glass panel. Accordingly, such systems are not adaptable to differing thicknesses of glass panels without replacement of the rails having such differently sized slots.
Other attempts to solve the difficulty of visibility through railings has been to install a shoe or slot within or on the horizontal surface, such as a deck or balcony, around which the railing is to be installed. The shoe or slot is designed to receive upright glass panels therein to form a barrier extending from the horizontal surface upwards. Examples of such designs are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,268 to Sher, U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,548 to Murphy, U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,799 to Shepherd, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,559,536 to Hansen et al. Although such designs offer improvements in visibility over conventional railing designs, these designs also require the glass panel to extend from or proximate to the floor over which they form a barrier around. Such a design poses difficulties when used around the periphery of an outside deck or balcony. It is known that in such outdoor applications, it is frequently necessary to remove snow or debris from the deck or balcony. Locating the glass panels adjacent to the floor of such a deck or balcony inhibits the removal of such snow or debris by obstructing the space that would conventionally exist under railings.